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Valve Jr head problems


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having problems with my head unit. I get weird distortion and very low volume (volume set at 12 o'clock) for what should be coming out of the cabinet. it can take from 10-45 minutes after first turning on the head for this to happen. turned it on the other day and it did it in 10 minutes. came back an hour later (left it on),and it worked fine. this is the second one that has done this.returned the first one to GC for the exact same thing two weeks after I bought it. this one is only 2 months old and acting the same way. I took this one (once) and the first one (twice) back to GC and they always work fine. even tried a power conditioner the other day with no luck. I'm past my 30 days to return it to GC this time so it's at the repair shop (under the Epiphone warranty still) to get looked at. anyone have similar problems?

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It's possible that it's the fuse holder.

they usually just cut all sound.

But it's possible.

 

the fuse holder has two ends inside which contact the ends of the fuse.

they often have a sort of varnish on them, whcih prevents full contact.

 

the fuse is in a perfectly safe place. inside the cabinet, away from all dangerous voltages. perfectly safe to remove the back panel, though it can be a pain to get off without scratching the tolex.

then find the fuse holder(s).

the orange wire is the one that you need to pay attention to.

 

unscrew it. take the fuse out. scratch at the metal inside each end of the holder.

you want bare metal there.

put the fuse back in.

put the panel on.

fire it up and see if that fixed it.

 

If not, it could be a tube going bad, a short somewhere, a bad solder joint, a failing component or even other such.

 

I got my first two vjs heavily discounted. because the dirty fuseholder made MF think they were bad amps.

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I got my first two vjs heavily discounted. because the dirty fuseholder made MF think they were bad amps.

 

Same here for my VJr head'n'cab' date=' new from another retailer than MF ..... nothing like a 5 minute fix saving you $125 [cool
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because they are sloppy. the metal is cheap. and corrodes easy. surface type corrosion that just gets the contact lousy.

and sometimes I've seen them with a kind of stuff like oil that dried up.

I dunno. glue? snot? the sweat of fear from chinese pores as the ghost of chairman mao shouts work faster!!!

 

Hard to say.

45's not too old to learn anything so you hang in there.

I'm 61.

whoopee!

*groan*

*L*

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got the head back from the shop yesterday. it seems there was some "goop" on the board that had melted into the power tube socket and was causing problems. he replaced the tube socket,new tube(JJ) and a couple of other things I can't remember off hand.

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sometimes you can see this dark material color around the sockets.. so far none of mine have been problematic.

but it's there. that was the 'varnish' comment bit in part.. it's sort of like that on the fuse holder ends sometimes.

and they use hot glue to keep some components stable, so I suppose it could even have been that.

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got the head back from the shop yesterday. it seems there was some "goop" on the board that had melted into the power tube socket and was causing problems. he replaced the tube socket' date='new tube(JJ) and a couple of other things I can't remember off hand. [/quote']

 

Did he give you the deffective parts back? If not.....IMHO he took you for a ride...sold you a new tube and scuffed up the fue holder!

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I think lay may have a view worth paying attention to.

I've never seen the hot glue near enough to the socket to cause a problem.

as it's only used on the big caps and a couple of the small ones. and a very small amount.

of course.. who knows? quality control is pretty good at epi china but it could happen I suppose.

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Did he give you the deffective parts back? If not.....IMHO he took you for a ride...sold you a new tube and scuffed up the fuse holder!

took me for a ride? it's under warranty so it didn't cost anything. I don't think he would risk his reputation (he's been around here for twenty plus years) over a five dollar tube socket and a 20 dollar tube.

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took me for a ride? it's under warranty so it didn't cost anything. I don't think he would risk his reputation (he's been around here for twenty plus years) over a five dollar tube socket and a 20 dollar tube.

 

OK..... glad it was warranty work,but I highly doubt he needed to replace the tube socket......that was my point. We've seen sooo many of these amps with the fuse holder problem give the symptoms you were describing,but as Twang said anything is possible. And for the record, any tech worth his salt would include(or at least show you) any parts he replaced IMHO.

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OK..... glad it was warranty work' date='but I highly doubt he needed to replace the tube socket......that was my point. We've seen sooo many of these amps with the fuse holder problem give the symptoms you were describing,but as Twang said anything is possible. And for the record, any tech worth his salt would include(or at least show you) any parts he replaced IMHO.

[/quote']

 

I was going to have him show me the parts,but we got to talking. we were talking about the time he did sound for Hot Tuna and got to jam with Jorma and I forgot all about asking about the parts. I'm a total newb,so I just have to go by what he and you guys tell me.

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I was going to have him show me the parts' date='but we got to talking. we were talking about the time he did sound for Hot Tuna and got to jam with Jorma and I forgot all about asking about the parts. I'm a total newb,so I just have to go by what he and you guys tell me. [/quote']

 

I'm just glad you got it fixed free and it's working! I may seem a little jaded,but I've seen some "techs" do some things and charge some prices that are way out of line.........so forgive me if I seem a little suspicious. Where it was warranty work it doesn't matter much......I agree.

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